Culture & leadership

Résumé du document

First of all, it is necessary to have a clear and simple definition of culture. So, "culture can be defined as all the behaviors, arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life" for an entire society. As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the arts and gastronomy" . Some other definitions talk about politics and science too.

Since the quickening of the Industrial Revolution in United Kingdom in 1850 there is no doubt that Europe sustained important cultural changes. The aura of this revolution crossed the Channel and pervaded in Europe but only went in western countries ready to change, France the first, then Germany, Italy, Spain, northern countries and until Austria. In addition, the impact of this industrial revolution was more limited beyond these countries, Poland, Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe were tardier in the evolution of their industry despite some exceptions. There is no denying that this revolution thus permitted a boom of new systems of management, Taylorism and Fordism for example and many others.

Moreover, the culture of each country of Europe has changed during the first quarter of the 20th Century according to the evolution of mentalities and parameters linked to the impact of the revolution. New totally different thoughts and personalities brought out and mainly in Western Europe but until Western Europe too (delimited from Hungary to the present Russia). Religion, Art, Politics, Industry, Science were involved.

Extraits

[...] Moreover, culture is a motor and a leitmotiv of charismatic leaders. The presence of oppressive political systems for example pushed leaders to resist to culture changes according to their values, beliefs, origins and their own culture. That is why their wishes and the necessity to believe in people and in homeland is a common factor. Thus, they use a similar leadership system even if they belong to Eastern or Western Europe. Moreover, each area of industry requires specific skills of management style to be as efficient as possible. [...]

[...] Nagy was aware of the people volition to emancipate itself. At that moment, he had a figurehead role and managed to take control of the Hungarian Communist Party. At the same time revolutionary workers councils and local national committees are formed all over Hungary. Nagy wanted to eradicate the one-party system in Hungary. But like other leaders, Nagy was critized and more precisely about his wish of withdrawing Hungary from the Warsaw Pact and the proclamation of the Hungarian neutrality. [...]

[...] Then his company began to produce arms. Skoda took up very difficult technical challenges and that is why it became the main supplier of the Czech army. Emil Skoda received a lot of awards. He was an excellent engineer but also a very good businessman. Emil Skoda foresaw which new developments were necessary for his industry although he was aware of the technical problems that these developments could engender. Emil Skoda was a visionary leader with an achievement oriented because he believed in his vision. [...]

[...] After that, a struggle set up between these two ministers. But Imre Nagy was an ardent fighter and his fight was fair and moral because he was led by his conscious behaviour and his beliefs. Nagy thus became the leader of Hungary; he used the occasion for making free the mass media from the state- owned stranglehold and lauded the intellectual freedom by public debates on economy and politics. Nagy was at that time an avant-gardist and a talented communicator in the communist context; he was an innovator who adapted himself to change, a visionary who thought about long-range perspectives for the Hungarian people. [...]

[...] He found the Treaty of Versailles. On completing his presidential term, Poincaré returned to the senate, and became a leader of the national block, a coalition of conservative parties. It brought him again to the premiership and the ministry of foreign affairs in 1922. In the face of Germany's failure to pay the reparations assigned by the peace treaty, Poincaré sent French soldiers to occupy the Ruhr in 1923. He failed, however, to coerce Germany to pay its reparations, and in May 1924, he was forced to resign following the conservatives' defeat in the general elections. [...]